Monday, February 21, 2011

M.O.

Amigads! I have been without interwebs for almost 4 whole days! So I've had zero AH playing, zero time on my side project and an absurdly late entry for today. The problem is that where I live the only other option for internet (aside from lulz dial up) is Comcast and well, unless they deliver prostitutes with the bill I'm not interested in ever using them again. With any luck I won't be having anymore problems like this for at least another few weeks.

I constantly mention that my MO of the AH game is to stokpile as much as possible, but I realized that I haven't really detailed that much of it. I'll do my best to sum it up into a few simple rules that I follow and go into some detail about of each of them today.

1. Stokpile as much as you canThere are many reasons that I firmly believe that you should stokpile non stop. The first reason for this is because material shortages will completely stop your business and they come about often and unexpectedly. Some profit is better than no profit. Another reason is to inflate the demand for an item so that more people will go out and farm it to keep you supplied. When you can go through an entire bank tab of XYZ materials you better be sure to be constantly buying more and more.

The most important reason for this is not just to have a supply, but to control it as well. By stokpiling as much as you can as often as you can, you limit the amount of materials that your competitors have access to and what prices that they have to pay. This gives you a natural edge to your business and lets you cut deep when the AH PvP starts up.

Lastly you always buying the low and normal priced goods, the rest of the server has to pay the above normal and high prices. This then turns them to look at the pre crafted items which you are selling for a comparatively low price. Another practical reason to stokpile is that you're not going to be able to be on game and scan the AH for good deals 24/7 even with the mobile auction house if you use it. So by buying as much as you can you won't have to worry about going to trade chat for some good deals.

Simply put, you are going to use all of the materials at some point anyway so why not buy them up while they're at a good price? It is always best to err on the side of caution. And with a mass amount of materials readily at hand you'll always be prepared for a supply drought or price spike. You're even prepared for a few goblins trying to work their way in if they managed to buy up mats when you're not around. In all likeliness you will be able to outlast anybody in an AH undercutting war simply because you have a far greater supply in your bank than anybody else does.

2. Deep undercuts are the way to goThis one I actually have detailed before in my original post on it here, but I'll give you a quick once over on this mentality.

First when you undercut by a noticeable amount people will think that they're getting a good deal and are more apt to buy. People just love getting a good deal even if the "deal" is just in their minds.

Second, you'll frustrate and piss of the competition quite a bit. This will cause them to leave the market far sooner or at least make it much more likely that they'll give up. People only leave a market when it is no longer profitable or easy enough for them to work in. This leads to the third reason deep undercutting is the way to go.

By undercutting by a few gold and not copper you'll drive prices down lower much faster and in addition to removing the current competition you'll also scare off any potential goblins or casual sellers from that market.

However this is not something to do with items that have a high rate of sales. Such things as fortune cookies, belt buckles, bags, etc. These sort of things are going to sell well no matter how much you undercut by so don't drop the price by 20g unless you have something personal against the competition.

3. Consistency and patienceI always work the same markets with the same methods even when the profits are low. The last thing you want to do is to leave a vacuum in a certain market because that will cause many people to start eying it and it's only a matter of time before goblins flock over to it. This is why people say "I don't want to lose my market share."

As soon as a big AH player stops working a certain market ripples will spread out to the other areas that are effected by it. This helps keep things stable and predictable which is essential to amassing wealth anywhere. It also allows any competition you give in to to grow and make more gold which makes it more likely for them to invade your other markets.

4. HomeworkWhen I rant on and on about "go do your homework fools!" I'm talking about looking at the AH pages. Look at what and who is selling for how much. Check their materials and check in on what other items use the same materials. This prevents you from making any mistakes and taking a large hit in your profits due to inexperience. This is absolutely essential for entering new markets. If you decide to just start up a JC business and lose thousands because you cut a ton of near worthless gems you deserve to lose money.

And don't just take a one day snapshot either. You need to actively watch and pay attention to what is going on in the markets. Watch for price shifts, supply floods and droughts and see if there's any noticeable patterns that you can take advantage of.

5. Change it upAs important as it is to have a system and a daily routine, it is equally important to change it. Not drastically, but enough that your competition will notice it. When I log onto certain bankers of mine, my friends list will instantly light up with a competitor signing on immediately as I load into the world. For any big time AH player it's important that you change up when you do your posting because of this. Your competitors will know your schedule almost as well as you do and are going to spend a good amount of time sitting and waiting for you. How somebody can stomach doing that I'll never know, but it happens. And it happens a lot.

I generally change up my posting times twice a week and go back and forth through them randomly. Basically I fit them to my personal schedule instead of dropping everything so I can hit the post raid crowd. Base your auctions around your IRL time, not the other way around.

7 comments:

I agree with some of what you write but I really practice the opposite regarding stockpiling. Most items that I deal in our declining in price the longer the game is played. I only need enough materials to keep my production going for a week. Sure i will buy up very cheap items but I never care to spend like crazy just because it is a deal now.

I dont care to dominate a market....I prefer others get a share such that price wars dont happen. A lot of gold makers use various addons. Deep undercutting isnt needed for most items in my view. I have never made a buying decision based on a deep undercut. A deepundercut may just have me buy your items and resell them. Done that many times. The items that deepundercutting may generate a sale are items that are more of a vanity nature in my view. Either you need and want the item or you dont or just cant afford it. I only deep undercut to trash a market. I generally undercut by 1 copper. We can have our posting war and it wont take more than a silver drop. It really doesnt impact the purchaser as most just look for the lowest price.

If we are constantly in a market buying up all the low price stuff we do impact the price of what gets listed. Avoiding the market for several days, often results in more items for sale at a low price. I try to leave it so there are some cheap items....just so people that list can keep prices low. Addons that post if set up incorrectly drive prices down. I see it often and take advantage of what I can.

All of this may be server pop dependant as I find on a low pop server I have an easy time doing it in my fashion. Every server and situtaion is unique. I agree stockpiling in some cases is very profitable....but there are many ways to make gold in this game.....The present wow....has me substantially over the gold cap in a few markets that have extremely high margins. Glyphs since 4.0 have netted me over 800k. My methods have been contrary to what many blog about...which I find interesting as it just means there are many ways to make gold and to do it well. Understanding how the market works for your server is the key.

@ Anon...wow. I honestly cannot tell if you're trolling, on the ONE sever where every axiom of the AH game is wrong, or are just a cancel/post monkey. I am truly speechless and I congratulate you for that if nothing else.

@ AltoI honestly believe that they meant either 80k on glyphs or 800k on everything. I cannot believe that somebody would seriously exaggerate that much.

I agree on most of the points, however I don't always see the point of the deep undercut. There are a load of different aspects to look at:

What's the competition? If it's a goblin, then you have to undercut to eventually shut them out. But if it's a casual player who logs on once per day to sell his stuff, you can easilly undercut with a copper and stay on top.

Secondly there is the price elasticity of the item. I found out that my sale of rare gems wouldn't be affected by rather big swings in prices. My sales would be the same if gems were double the price as normal (or rather, half the price as normal). I think enchant scrolls are the same. It fits my theory of the raider; he must have the gems or enchants for his sweet upgrade and NOW. He can't wait and normally don't stockpile his own enchants and gems. Another thing to say about this is awareness that the price of a similar product could affect the price of your item. Take for example the price of any lvl 333 rare. If this was a super rare item and priced as such, say 30k, people would find other alternatives, and thus your sweet one-of-a-kind on the server would lose its value, because no-one would buy it.

In the end it's all about maximizing profit. If your server is full of goblins then execute. But I find on my server, that I can sell the same amounts of Hurricane scrolls whether they cost 250 or 430 g.

I dont think I dominate the market as there are others that have more listed than I do .....and substantially more listings....I am atm...not even on the top seller on my server...based on undermine journal...but that is easy to manipulate...and I prefer not to be known. Sales arrive at from key reposting times. Check undermine journal and watch your competition....easy to see what can be done.

I only make glyphs that sell over 100gold....This isnt the average glyph sale. I dont know what the average sale is....as it varies. For a while the average sale was closer to 250gold. Just note I do not cover the whole market. Last night as an example from 8-11pm I sold 30 glyphs for 5k. This works out to 166 gold each. Did I get all the sale there. No...I list 1/2 of each glyph that I sell. So there were others that could of obtained sales in the 100gold plus market. I did fine in that short time frame. I posted at 8...did a few heroics, some pvp etc...and checked to repost at 11-12. Next morning I wake up to similar sales of 4k. This is solely glyphs and atm...I am in what I call semi retirement as I dont repost as often as I used to and I do not post as much.

Every market is different and on my server the main sellers who trashed the market to 1-2gold glyphs pre 4.0 are gone. No one has replaced them. The glyph of Dark succor on the first day it was available was selling for 1000gold each. No one was posting them but myself and one other person. That same glyph now sells for 39gold. Every market is unique.

...wow. I honestly cannot tell if you're trolling, on the ONE sever where every axiom of the AH game is wrong, or are just a cancel/post monkey. I am truly speechless and I congratulate you for that if nothing else.

Missed your comment. Not everything is wrong but I am saying stockpiling by itself as a premise works in some markets...not all. Based on my friends market...high pop...his strats have to be substantially different than mine due to competition. The two of us play a very different AH game as I have helped him earn his gold....but the strats that work on my server dont always work on his. Overall....based on my market...stockpiling rarely has its advantages.

If I were to analzye what you did.....I would wonder if you changed some of your methodology....would your liquid gold rise faster. If you buy all these mats....when do the sales occur....If you bought less....sold at a later time....and rebought as other deals arose...would you not be able to be in the same position. Would the leaving of a number of items on the AH at lower prices not result in oversupply....you are affecting supply by buying them all up.

Deep undercuts...on my server...drive prices down...it doesnt impact competion as much as it does just reduce margins. Buying it all up and restarting the price for sales lasts a long time on my market. Driving prices down, I find always hurts me more than it helps.

About Me

This blog is about discovering all of the ways to make money in Rift. There are no cheats, hacks, or exploits used in any of my methods.
After amassing a 2 million gold fortune in wow I decided to come over to Rift and see how well I can do there. It is my belief that the game does not matter as much as the methods used and mine have already been proven to work and work well.